#Truth of the Divine

[sajirah]

Ampersand, Cora, Kaveh, and Nikola from Truth of the Divine.

I started this forever ago and have finally accepted that I’ll likely never finish it. So if you see any unfinished parts, no you didn’t.

[galaxygolfergirl]

Axiom’s End, a science fiction drama written by Lindsay Ellis (directed by Michael Bay and score by Fred Durst).

This is a digital remaster of the poster I did 2 years ago! Seeing as Lindsay’s third book, Apostles of Mercy, is coming out next week on June 6th, I thought I might rework this piece now that I have this new tablet. I think it turned out pretty well! Hope you guys like it. 💙👽

[comradegoblin]

Is it bad I like Sol? I feel like I'm not supposed to like Sol but I like Sol 👀

[titles-for-tangents]

So there I was checking to see if there was a summary was up yet for "Apostles of Mercy" when I spotted this little rather telling detail

There's no summary up on B&N yet as of this posting but it's up an Amazon, and both have three quotes of incredible praise. Let's zoom in on this one in particular by the incredible, indelible Jamie Loftis:

"Lindsay Ellis shows us that humans are just as much the other as their alien counterparts with incredible detail, humor, and empathy, and never better than in this un-put-downable conclusion to the Noumena saga. Cora Sabino has officially joined the pantheon of first contact heroines." - Jamie Loftis, New York Times bestselling author of Raw Dog

CONCLUSION?!!?!

I knew Noumena was originally published under a three-book deal with Macmillian Press, and that it would hopefully go to a full five-book series depending on the success of the first three. What then, pray tell, on earth happened to the other two?

[artbyvampiraptor]

Struggling struggling struggling to make a good Ampersand design, my alien cyborg blorbo,help I just wanted to draw something because the Apostles of Mercy cover was recently released and I'm vibrating with excitement

[damienthepious]

ALL AMPERSAND KNOWS IS MAKE FIRST CONTACT, EAT HOT CHIP, AND LIE

[secretsofthewilde]

There's something so gut wrenching about the way Cora constantly views Nikola as a threat and doesn't humanise him the way she does with Ampersand, and yet Nikola is the one that's more outwardly compassionate towards humans.

She also struggles with Ampersand lying or keeping things from her so much during Truth of the Divine, but Nikola freely gives information to those who ask him. When Ampersand is emotionally distraught, he shuts down and self isolates, but Nikola lashes out and self medicates - which is not only incredibly human in general, but it's something that Kaveh admitted to also doing in the past. Cora herself exhibits both traits; she will isolate herself from other humans and fail to look after self, but then will lash out at others when she's unable to be alone.

I can't help but wonder if part of it is due to her self-hatred for the bond she has with Ampersand, when Nikola is not only the seemingly kinder alien but he also shared a connection with Kaveh that was far more healthy than hers.

[noumena-ramblings]

I swear I’m gonna be normal I’m gonna be so so normal about this

[innocet]

Started a noumena discord server, if anyone’s interested! It’s all ages at the moment (this might change depending on the demographics of our first members) so come on in!

[arvadthecursed]

Damn, I wish I had an alien insectoid/reptilian boyfriend who injected me with unknown chemicals and studied my brain in an effort to fix me, too.

[whatthesquids]

I can’t believe i spent so much time thinking of this meme art AND made it AND THEN forgot to post it

[amygdaline]

Thinking about the different relationships characters have with “Truth” in Axiom’s End and Truth of the Divine...

- For Nils, truth is a human right but some people are more human than others. Nils’s slogan is “truth is a human right.” But his actions in TODT paint him as either cognitive dissonance-ing himself away from his own lies, or as a blatant, corrupted manipulator. Truth is a human right, except when he secretly blackmails Kaveh, schemes to indoctrinate his children for gain, and requests political favors in exchange for information. 

- For Kaveh, the means to truth do not justify the ends if the means cause more suffering than the ends prevent. Kaveh worked with Nils on at least one of the same projects, outing government atrocities that Sol was wrapped up in. But Kaveh believes this is a truth that needs to be outed to save lives and hold the government accountable, not to get his name in an article or book. When he has the truth of what Nils is willing to do his own integrity as a truth seeker and human being helps him make the easy decision to never want to work with Nils ever again. 

- For Cora, lying is seen as a way to protect herself and protect others, but if she goes too far it does the opposite. Cora tells little white lies, usually in the pursuit of peace. “I believe you,” she says when she doesn’t believe somebody, but doesn’t want to fight. She manipulates and minces interpretations of Ampersand’s comments for the sake of keeping peace. Her omissions of truth rarely cause great harm but neither do they ever help anything. However, as her illness progresses, little white lies snowball until she’s lying about the state of her own mental health, until she breaks. She hurts herself and her loved ones by proximity.

- For Luciana, it feels like telling the truth has only caused harm in the long run. Luciana wants to believe in her own goodness, and therefore cannot conceive that she would ever do something like breaking a NDA or hurting her family. She’s so concerned with being correct that she hurts her family, anyway. And still, that truth hurts. 

- For Ampersand, the truth will only make you suffer, so omission is an act of self-sacrifice; his instability for your stability. Ampersand always lies by omission, telling half truths or distracting from the real truth. He’s exactly like Cora but to the extreme, omitting truth because he believes the truth will hurt those around him. However, he’s gone so far down this hole of omission that his problems never get solved; he hurts himself, he hurts all his loved ones, and he knows he needs help but feels too broken to seek it. 

- For Nikola, there is no reason why he needs to lie or omit; the end is near, anyway. Nikola only tells the truth, as he understands it. His truth is pessimistic but his actions optimistic, something Kaveh notes about their friendship. When he says he’s ready to die but takes care of his body and mind, he isn’t lying about wanting to die. He wants to have hope but he is compelled to let the humans understand the odds of their hopelessness, all the same. 

- For the pequod superorganism, truth is a tangible thing they can hold in their hands, and they consume it like their sister-species “consumes” planets. The general pequod society, if Nikola is right, thinks that they can keeping going and going and going, that the universe is a black-and-white thing they can pull apart. But Nikola sees it as something bigger and incomprehensible than either pequod or human beings. There is a divinity- the unknown- which they can never touch. But the superorganism will keep trying to understand, anyways. They will destroy themselves and the miracle of other intelligent life in their endless pursuit of black-and-white.

- For the human superorganism- particularly the USA where the story is set- truth is only a tool. General Porter thinks he deserves the truth on the basis of his position of power and very likely his ethnicity and sex. He wants to use it to kill people. The general government agencies depicted, including ROSA, think they deserve to know everything they can squeeze out of Ampersand, even at the expense of their alien guest’s health. Political parties want the truth by any means to use it for their own political campaigns. Even those with less power- middle class to poor people- use truth and speculation of the truth for their own agendas, to discriminate against others, particularly Jewish and Muslim communities. The truth here does more harm than good, fought over like a commodity, manipulated and repurposed. You have the truth, now what? “He was a hero,” “he was a species traitor,” he’s great for views.

[wilderhyperfoxations]

i devoured this series in a matter of days and i really wish the fandom was bigger

also esperas!!!! is my little elven gremlin!!!!

[foxpearlwilder]

some rough sketches of amygdalines. i imagine they have slightly different crests and eyes, also that & has a hUge head compared to the rest

[nerves-nebula]

Diversity win! This heterogametic functionally agender female alien uses he/him pronouns (as a social play to be taken seriously & seen as superior to his human translator)

God I fucking love this series I wanna savor it so bad but I can’t stop listeningggg

[fe-noumenal]

I ship Kaveh/Nikola so much